Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost – A Review of the Sixth Commandment – August 23, 2009

 

Genesis 39:6-12 - ⁶ So he (Potiphar) left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.  Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, ⁷ and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” ⁸ But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.  ⁹ No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”  ¹⁰ And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.  ¹¹ One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside.  ¹² She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

 

            Turn on the Television or read a magazine while standing in line to check out, and you are bound to see something along these lines: Frank and his wife Romona have had an argument, so Romona goes to confide in her good friend Walter and they end up sleeping together.  Or maybe Hubert and Dolly are to get married in a couple weeks, so they figure they better live it up before being tied down by the old ball and chain.  So they each go to their respective strip clubs for a little last minute entertainment.   Still, maybe it’s as simple as trying to get you to feel pity for Shawn and Cory who are having a difficult time being accepted as a gay couple in an “old-fashioned” town.  Whether it be Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, My Name Is Earl, Life, All My Children, As the World Turns, Jerry Springer, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Maxim, Cosmo, or the Simpson’s, we are bombarded and can easily grow calloused to sin by the hundreds of examples we see of what the Lord never intended marriage or relationships to be.  What may be even scarier is trying to answer the question, does life imitate TV, or is it that TV imitates life?  It is worthy of saying it again, loud and clear, the good Lord never intended it to be this way.    

            In our lesson this morning, we see someone in the person of Joseph who did understand and was clearly aware of the sanctity of marriage and the proper place within the marriage for the gift of sex that the LORD instituted in the beginning.  Now, if you remember Joseph, you will remember that it was around the age of 17 when he was sold by his brothers and taken to Egypt by slave traders.  There, a man named Potiphar acquired Joseph and put him to work in his house.  The LORD blessed Joseph and he succeeded in everything that he did.  In time, Potiphar trusted Joseph so much that he put him in charge of his entire household.  Not only was Joseph successful, but Potiphar’s wife noticed that he was well-built and a handsome young man.  And she looked at him with longing eyes of desire.  Everyday, Potiphar’s wife tried to persuade Joseph to sleep with her.  Every time Joseph refused.  He even removed himself from situations that would place him with her.  Finally he told her, “How could I do this great evil – then I would have sinned against God!”  Joseph recognized that not only would he be violating the marriage of his master, but more importantly, he would be guilty of sinning against God and the rules He had established for marriage.  But Potiphar’s wife would not listen.  She continued to let her lust drive her until one day she grabbed Joseph by his coat.  But even then Joseph ran away.  Joseph knew that God had reserved sex as a special gift for a man and woman in marriage and he did not want to abuse God’s gift.

I pray that none of you have another man or woman pulling on your shirt trying to drag you away to sin against this commandment.  But you know, even if you don’t, there are plenty of other things in this sinful world to entice you to sin, whether you are single or married.  And don’t kid yourself, your sinful nature is more than willing to give in.  Too many television shows make a mockery of marriage and portray extra-marital affairs and pre-marital sex as fun and exciting.  There is no shortage of adult magazines, adult book stores and strip clubs.  But now you don’t even have to sneak away in secrecy to these businesses.  You can bring pornography into the privacy of your own home with the internet and satellite and cable television, so no one knows.  It can even be something as subtle as the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.  All of these pleasures that the world offers can drag you away and lead you to lust and impure thoughts, which condemn us as much as committing a sexual act.  Jesus himself said, “You have heard it said, ‘Do not commit adultery.”  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27, 28).   And it’s not just men that are guilty of looking and thinking impure thoughts, but also women, as we heard in this story about Joseph and his master’s wife. 

And sometimes it is your own sinful nature that tugs at your hearts and tempts you to disobey God’s rules for marriage.  Maybe you, as a husband, are harsh with your wife.  Maybe you do not respect her and treat her with love, as God demands.  Maybe, as a wife you do not recognize your role as your husband’s helper and companion.  Maybe you do not live with a servant’s attitude in your marriage.   Perhaps as husband and wife you continually fight and argue about trivial things and hold grudges and bring up past faults.  These attitudes and actions also violate God’s rules for marriage.

Or maybe you are single, widowed or divorced.  To you the world says ever so loudly that sex between a man and woman who are not married is ok, because, after all, you are consenting adults and perhaps you love each other.  But that is a flat-out-lie and a deadly trap too many fall into.  Sadly, this is no longer a problem that continually pressures teenagers and young adults, but all ages.  Too many single people in this world do not recognize that sex is a gift which God has reserved for marriage.  In Hebrews 13:4 God says, “Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”   All this is to say nothing about the whole host of other sins we did not even talk about that the Lord condemns: homosexuality, straight up adultery, couples living together who are not married, coarse joking about sex, and so on. 

There is no denying that you and I sin against this commandment in countless ways.  And it isn’t that we just sin against our own bodies, or against others, but worst of all, we sin against God.  Even when done in the secrecy of home, God knows about it.  Even when done only in the heart, God knows about it.  As Joseph said, “How can I do this wicked thing and sin against God?”   Too many times we have stepped over that line he has told us not to cross.  Far too often our lives are far from being lived according to the standards he has set up.  Therefore, since we are now confronted with our sin, we must repent.  We must, with the help of God, make an effort to curb those sinful desires.  If we don’t repent and curb our sinful sexual desires and thoughts and actions, we will ruin our souls.  We will carouse and adulterate and defile and corrupt our souls right into hell.   The apostle Paul said to the congregation in Thessalonica, and God says to us, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God…The Lord will punish…for all such sins.  For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life” (1Thessalonians 4:3-7).

When we look at how we have failed to obey this commandment, we stand before Jesus, our heavenly groom, completely dirty.  Yes, you heard me right, I called Jesus our groom.  That is because in God’s Word the Holy Spirit frequently calls the Church (that is all believers), the bride of Christ.  We are the unfaithful bride, but Jesus says he will be the faithful husband.  He tells us he will provide for us and always looks after us and put our needs before His.  And Christ has completely taken care of those needs.  What needs are those?  Well, it’s no secret that our need is the forgiveness of sin and a right relationship with our God. 

The apostle Paul explains with magnificent imagery what the Heavenly Groom has done for us in Ephesians 5:25-27, “Christ loved the Church (i.e. all believers) and gave himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”  What a beautiful thing for Jesus to do for us!  He washed us dirty people, soiled with sins against his gift of sex.  He removed the stains of our guilt and shame which we feel because of the horrible and unloving ways we have treated our spouses.  He gave himself up on the cross for us and shed his blood to pay for our sins against the 6^th Commandment.  He took all our sin away.  He paid the price for our unfaithfulness on the cross.  He suffered the hell our impure hearts deserve and was forsaken by the Father for our adultery.  The passage from Ephesians speaks of how, at your baptism, the Holy Spirit through the amazing power of his holy Word cleansed you inside and out.  The Holy Spirit accomplished this by applying Christ’s all-atoning death and sin-free life to you.  The writer to the Hebrews said, “We have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.” (Heb 4:15)   The Holy Spirit takes that perfect life and innocent death of Christ and covers you.  Now as you stand before your heavenly bridegroom you are holy and pure, full of righteousness.  

Now, with the joy of salvation restored to us again, we long to please Christ and to do what he says.  In this 6^th commandment he tells you how you will live as his forgiven bride.  He gives you the example of Joseph in his Holy Word.  Like Joseph, we will want to run away from temptation.  Here are some ways to do that.  If you struggle with temptations on the internet, put your computer in a room in the house where it is plain for everyone to see.  Reset your internet security settings.  Don’t go to those internet chat rooms just to “check it out.”  Take a real, honest, long inventory of the Television shows you watch and question whether they really help you in the fight against temptation.  Put a block on your cable or satellite television that prohibits the use of adult only programs.  And sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures!  Maybe you need to cancel your cable subscription, get rid of the TV and computer all together. 

As a husband and wife, communicate, talk to each other.  Share your feelings.  Study God’s Word together as a couple.  Pray together.  Love and honor each other.  As a single person, when you are on a date, remember who you are and whose you are.  Pray that the Lord would keep you from these temptations.  Whether you are married or single, don’t put yourself in situations that could lead to sexual impropriety.  Run away from temptation.  Ask the Lord to help you remember Joseph’s words, “How could I do such a wicked thing, and sin against God?”  Whether you are married or single, study God’s Word so that you can actively live these words: “Finally…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).

As long as we live and breathe, as long as we interact with other people, as long as we are in this world we will struggle to keep this commandment.  That is because everywhere we turn we will be attacked and bombarded with enticing temptations to push God’s 6^th Commandment aside and satisfy our sinful flesh.  But amidst all the darkness of this world, we have a shining moment of Christian living in Joseph.  We have the shining light of Christ who has made us his holy bride.  May the Holy Spirit now strengthen you to run away from temptation and to say, “How can I do such wicked thing, and sin against God?”  God grant it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.